Primativa in Hi-Fi Exotica Tuesday - April 5th Jack Newcastle's Book Signing

Jack & Gina

Primativa in Hi-Fi brings the sounds of exotica and mid-century lounge to Painkiller Tiki New York bar every Tuesday night.  Primativa is the brainchild of tiki-philes Jack Fetterman and Gina Haase. The duo share their visions and soundtrack of vintage Tiki and exotica that would made Donn the Beachcomber proud.  The setting is the back room of Painkiller which just won “Best Lay/Lei” at the Time Out New York 2011 Food & Drink Awards. The sounds of exotica legends such as Martin Denny and Les Baxter float through the bar with jungle shrieks and drum beats. Hawaiian shirts, floral South Seas dresses, and guayaberas mix with grey flannel suits all looking to escape the everyday in this tropical backdrop. Meanwhile, the classic and old interpretations of the drinks such as the Kon Tiki Mai Tai, Golden Cadillac, and Negroni Swizzle keep your thirst quenched and the room buzzing.

This Tuesday, April 5^th our pal author Jack Newcastle will be signing his new novel, the mad cap 1950s comedy  "The Fine Art of Mixing Girls" at Primativa in Hi-Fi. So while you stop by for a delicious Jet Pilot cocktail made by forbidden island vixens like Joanne “Lu Lu” Martinez, pick up a copy of Newcastle’s book which as been described as “a highball comedy of manners, full of too much gin and too many cigarettes — a must for cocktail enthusiasts and mid-century modernists alike!”

Find out about Jack Newcastle

Buy Jack's Book

Join Primativa's Facebook group

Head over to Painkiller NYC

Barfly's Beat: PKNY - Eagerly awaited NY Tiki Bar opens

I arrived early for the Painkiller "friends and family" opening. Graffiti artist NOC (of Style Wars fame) was still putting the finishing touches to the graffiti mural covering the store gate. Giuseppe Gonzalez, the beaming new proprietor, was outside enjoying the proverbial calm before the storn. That storm bearing down on his new little Tiki Bar would be a tidal wave of bartenders, cocktailians, bloggers, and others in town for the Japanese Cocktail Technique seminar that wrapped up earlier at the Hiro Ballroom.

Giuseppe let us in early and we took the "dug out" seats which in my opinion are always the best seats in the house.  This gave us time to catch up a bit with out hosts before the madness began. Richie Boccato and Giuseppe Gonzalez, of Dutch Kills in Long Island City, have collaborated with business partners to open a new generation of Tiki Bar.  As mentioned in our Tiki's Revenge post last winter, Painkiller isn't your typical kitschy tourist trap with badly made drinks. Inspired by New York's gritty 1970s and the drinks culture made famous by Donn the Beachcomber, Trader Vic, and most recently Jeff Beachbum Berry, PKNY makes serious cocktails but does not take itself too seriously. Graffiti murals fit in side by side with bamboo covered walls and comfy red booths.

Giuseppe addressed the growing crowd as his partner Richie prepared the industrial strength blenders for service.

"Come on you are all family - call it out." 

(silence)

"Ok, Mai Tais for everyone!"

(applause from crowd)

The Mai Tai and a Zombie

Three drinks were served and Brooklyn Lager beer. The signature Painkiller, a Zombie served in a Fu Man Chu style tiki mug, and the original Mai Tai. Besides the three featured drinks, there is no formal cocktail menu but rather genres of drinks including, Zombies, Tiki Flights, Swizzles, Daiquiris, Frozens,  a PKNY's (bartender's) Choice, a mini scorpion bowl called the "Cradle of Life", and the something called "The Bastards." This philosphy does not keep the menu stale and let's the barkeeper create bespoke or modified recipes based upon the availability of ingredients.

As the old East Side Company space swelled to capacity with a whose who of mixology talent and favorite regulars, we threw down the ice cold Tiki drinks as the temperature reached tropic proportions. New friends were made, old flames were cursed, and shots in "skull" shot glasses were slammed. An hour and half later I had to give up the hard sought real estate of the dug out and make our way into the fresh cool air. Painkiller was off to a momentous start!

PKNY formally opens on Friday May 7th at 6pm. I suggest you get their early and be prepared for scorpion bowls! I'll be having a Bermuda Swizzle!

PKNY

49 Essex Street

Chinatown, NYC

Tales of the Cocktail 2010's "Official Cocktail" Announced!

Fresh off the press, it will clearly be Year of the Tiki at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this July. The "Death in the South Pacific" cocktail submitted by Washington mixologist Evan Martin was crowned Tales' “official cocktail”. More than 150 bartenders worldwide submitted recipes for the event.  I guess we will be packing Hawaiian shirts and the Orgeat syrup this year! Here is the press release:

"Winner of the Official Cocktail Competition. Evan's drink will be the official cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail 2010.

Winning Cocktail and Official Cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail 2010:

Death in the South Pacific

 

0.75 oz. Appleton Estate Extra 12 Year Old rum
0.75 oz. Rhum Clement VSOP rum
0.5 oz. Grand Marnier
0.33 oz. Trader Tiki's Orgeat Syrup
0.33 oz. Fee Brothers Falernum
3 dashes Absinthe
0.5 oz. Fresh Lime Juice
0.5 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
0.5 oz. Fee Brothers Grenadine
0.5 oz. Cruzan Blackstrap rum

Method: Add all ingredients except for the grenadine and Cruzan Blackstrap to a Zombie shell glass and fill with crushed ice. Swizzle the drink well to mix and frost the glass and then pour in grenadine. Overfill the glass with crushed ice and then pour in Cruzan Blackstrap.  

Garnish: Take a bamboo skewer and put a brandied cherry through at the very top followed by 1 pineapple leaf (insert through the middle) and then cut off skin from 1 large orange slice and then cut the strips in half. Insert the ends through the skewer having them hang on opposite sides of each other. Then insert the straw through the loop in the bamboo skewer. It should look like a guy hanging off of the drink (cherry=head, pineapple leaf= arms, citrus peel dangling away from each other are the legs)."

(Source and image courtesy of Tales of the Cocktail )

Tiki's Revenge

by Fredo

The First Wave
The first wave of the Tiki revival hit New York ten years ago with the opening of bars like Zombie Hut (Brooklyn), Otto's Shrunken Head (14th Street), the Lei Bar in Niagra's basement (Ave A),the clubby Tiki Room (Flatiron), and the kitsch 1950s Polynesian themed Waikiki Wally's (East Village). These places were heavy on retro kitsch factor and gimmicks. The worst offender was the Tiki Room, an awful nightclub in the Flatiron district that catered to the B&T. This place had wide screen HDTVs over the bar and their cocktail program was closer to a Spring Break bar than the Tonga Room. In our opinion, they were straight up poseurs more interested in capitalizing on a trend than paying attention to the history and craftsmanship of the genre. Other bars like Otto's Shrunken Head and Zombie Hut got the ambiance and inspiration right when they first opened. It seemed like they were taking pages out of the Trader Vic's play book circa 1956. Unfortunately, the same attention to detail and quality was lost at the bar. The main criticism of the first wave is the lack of fresh ingredients, proportioned pouring, and artisanal touch that has come to typify the new generation of top cocktail bars. However, in all fairness, they were not all mediocre drinks and sugary hang overs. I do thank them for putting Tiki back on the radar after forty years in the vault.

The Desert Island
In recent years, there have been some gems among the coal. A disciple of Tiki, Brian Miller of Death & Company and Joe Swifka of Elettaria preached the gospel of Don the Beachcomber in his classics. Miller slayed notions of the genre's fad with reinterpretations of the classic island cocktails. My favorite being a Gin version of the Zombie called the Winchester. This concotion stays true to the Zombie formula but uses three types of gin in lieu of rum. A Swifka original is the Black Pearl, which is Tiki-fied old fashioned using Cruzan Black Strap rum in addition Old Forester Bourbon as the base spirits. This proved Tiki was not pigeon holed. Quality ingredients and creativity kept the genra alive in the late-2000s when the trend and flavor of the month establishments like the Tiki Room and Waikiki Wally's were washed away. Thank the Tiki Gods for Elettaria's Tiki Mondays!

Tiki's Revenge
Once again the trade winds are guiding us to the Forbidden Island, so queue the Les Baxter but also add Desi Arnaz to the mix. This time around prepare for cocktails made correctly! The wave is moving from the Pacific Coast to the Atlantic. In San Francisco, Smuggler's Cove which opened in December 2009, has 70 plus cocktails on their menu and top talent from West Coast bar scene rolling the drinks. In New York, Painkiller is under construction in the Lower East Side. The noticeable differences with these bars is they draw their inspiration from the Caribbean in addition to the South Seas. They should really be called Rum Bars in the tradition of Trailer Happiness in London. It is clear that the Rum Revolution illustrated in Pete Wells New York Times article is in full swing.

Dutch Kills owner Richard Boccato and award winning bartender Giuseppe Gonzalez should have Painkiller open by the Ides of March but this won't be another Trader Vic doppelganger. I'm expecting something out of Mean Streets. According to Eater, Boccato says:

"Since the team is planning to blend 1970s New York culture and 1940s tiki culture, this may just be the best-ever tiki bar. Even the address is cool."

That cool address is the former East Side Company space on Essex and Grand. Expect freshly squeezed juice, an ice program par excellence, lots of falernum, private reserve rums,the classics made to perfection, as well as inventive cocktails and punches.

So until you can venture to PK NY to try the namesake, enjoy one of the British Virgin Island's most famous drinks:

The Painkiller
4 parts fresh pineapple juice
1 part cream of coconut
1 part fresh orange juice
2 oz Rum (we recommend Smith & Cross Jamaican pot stilled rum)
touch of fresh grated nutmeg

Stir the juices and creme in bar glass, then add rum, stir again. Fill goblet with crushed ice, serve the mixture, and top off with dusting of fresh nutmeg.

PAINKILLER
49 Essex St
New York, NY

(Photos of PK NY courtesy of Giuseppe Gonzalez)